together with Afghanistan, tied in a knot of
boundaries not many miles from where the
highway goes through the pass, this 500
mile-long retrace of the old Silk Road is of
immense strategic importance.
Roads in Pakistan are like that. Paved
with intrigue. Roads chockablock with bus
es and trucks so lavishly decorated with
sparkling gimcrackery that they look like
circus calliopes. Desert roads that carry
drug-laden cars in the night.
Pakistan has become a major artery in the
"My ribs like rafters...." So the young
GautamaBuddha,after a periodof asceti
cism, described himself. A third-century
sculpture of the "FastingBuddha," one of
Pakistan'smost valued artistictreasures,
reposes in the LahoreMuseum.
Mud walls offamily compounds in a vil
lage (right)near Quetta attest to the de
sirefor privacy. Wheat and tobacco fields
liefallow till spring.
vast and sinister network of international
narcotics traffic. "Until four years ago, the
Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia was the
leading producer of opium for export," Reza
Husnain, former director of operations of
the Pakistan Narcotics Control Board, said.
"But that distinction now belongs to the
Iran-Afghanistan-Pakistan area, and the
disturbances in the first two mean that Paki
stan's potential may be exploited further."
Until recently, Husnain explained, most
of the opium was grown in Afghanistan and
marketed through Pakistan. "Now it is the
other way," he said. "Not too long ago we in
tercepted 250 kilograms of morphine being
transported on a road from Quetta to Iran.
Hauls of such size were unheard of before
the troubles in Afghanistan and Iran."
In addition to that, he said, the closing of
the opium shops has added to the problem.
Under British rule, and continuing until
February 1979, a Pakistani could purchase
as much as 23 grams of opium a day from li
censed vend shops. The closing of the vends,
it is believed, has left from 100,000 to
150,000 addicts with little choice but to turn
to a now flourishing illicit market.
"We have all those factors working
against us," Husnain said. "In addition, our
laws having to do with drugs are lenient
compared to those of, say, Iran. If we are to
keep this thing from getting out of hand, we
have to come down hard now, as we are
starting to do."
According to Husnain, his country's an
nual production of opium normally ranges
from 200 to 300 metric tons.
"All around there are countries in turmoil,
and so Pakistan is left to fill the gap as far as
providing narcotics is concerned," Husnain
said. "It is a very serious situation, and it has
even started to result in the spread of addic
tion here. In northern Pakistan now you can
find whole villages on hashish or opium."
The use of opium seems to be heavier in
the villages than in the cities of Pakistan. In
the largest city of them all, Karachi, the
sweltering, swollen hub of the nation's in
dustry and commerce, the apathetic stupor
of an addict would go little noticed amid the
bustle of millions of people in movement.
Seven million now live in Karachi, with
another 500,000 added each year. By the
end of the century this Arabian Sea port city
696